Application of GIS and Remote Sensing for Hydropower Development in Nepal

Abstract

Nepal is endowed with abundant water resources from the availability point of view. Hydropower is considered as a viable means of economic growth for the country's overall development. The river and physiographic characteristics of Nepal offer immense possibilities for the development of hydropower schemes of different scales, and various national and international agencies have expressed keen interest. On the other hand, Nepal's biodiversity resources, a fragile landscape, scattered settlement patterns and natural resource based rural livelihoods are directly affected by hydropower development. Use of recent information about place, people and scientific analysis is crucial for addressing the environmental and socio-economic impacts of development activities. Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) technology have the capabilities to create, update and manage recent information about the earth's surface and its integration with socio- economic information; but these technologies have not been used properly for the hydropower development sector in Nepal. This paper is about the application of GIS and Remote sensing technology to make the hydropower development environment friendly and to create less impact upon the rural livelihood. Key words: GIS, Remote Sensing, hydropower, watershed management, Nepal doi: 10.3126/hn.v3i0.1920 Hydro Nepal Journal of Water, Energy and Environment Issue No. 3, July 2008. Page: 42-45

Investigation of hydroelectric energy potential of the Zab River Basin using geographic information systems and remote sensing methods

“…12 For the spatial analysis performed within the Zab River Basin, ArcGIS 9.3.1 was utilized [13][14][15] as geographic information systems (GIS) software and Erdas 8.6 was used as Remote Sensing (RS) software for land use classifications. [16][17][18] The data required for the determination of the long term meteorological characteristics of the basin (precipitation, temperature, evaporation, relative humidity, wind, snow, etc.) were provided from State Meteorological Organization (DM _ I).…”

Seydi̇suyu Havzasinda Küçük Ölçekli̇ Hi̇droelektri̇k Enerji̇ Potansi̇yeli̇ni̇n Araştirilmasi

“…Ayrıca, daha detaylı çalışmalar için, 1/25.000 ölçekli 54 adet Raster harita (Verisi taranmış ve rektifiye edilmiş), 54 adet Vektör (sayısal harita) harita, 54 adet jeolojik sayısal harita, UTM 36N zonunda European Datum 1950 (ED50) koordinat sisteminde, DSİ III Bölge müdürlüğünden temin edilmiştir. Araştırmada, Seydisuyu havzasının mekânsal analizleri (spatial analysis), Coğrafi Bilgi Sistemleri (ArcGIS 10-CBS)-Geographic Information System-GIS) yazılımı (Anonim, 1992a;Anonim, 1992b;Aronoff, 1991) ile analiz edilmiştir (Garbrecht ve Martz, 1999;ERSDAC, 2003;Pathak, 2008). Havzanın meteorolojik özelliklerinin (yağış, sıcaklık, buharlaşma, nispi nem, rüzgar, vb.)…”

Micro hydropower plant potential study based on Landsat 8 operational land imager satellite data

“…This method can minimize the cost and reduce the time of geological field surveys. The field survey can be done more effectively and more precisely [12], [13], [19], [21], [25], [29]- [33].…”